To my surprise, Emperor Goto had kept his word. I saw neither hide nor hair of Akahime the rest of that night, or the following morning.

I trudged sleepily into the cafeteria, and picked out my breakfast from the menu that day. I got something that resembled chicken soup with rice, and a side of sliced fruits. The aroma penetrated my nose, and instantly woke me from my fog.

After thanking the ladies on cafeteria duty, I walked out and was met by a hyperactive Lilian who was animatedly having a conversation with the two princesses.

“So he’s just like that normally? Holy hell, I thought he was just playing a character. Are you sure having him around as a member of the Metronian Kingdom’s court is a good idea?” My eye twitched in annoyance at his tone.

That bastard. He’s found a way around some of the restrictions by posing them as questions instead of saying them as his own opinion. X, please tighten the restrictions after breakfast, and double check that he can’t perform similar loopholes for the other rules.

“Understood, Master.” X materialized to my right, appearing visible only to myself and other Judgment users.

Lilian leaned in uncomfortably close to Lucina, but she didn’t seem to mind. Instead, when she spotted me walking towards the table with a plate in my hand, a mischievous smile grew on her face.

“I don’t know, but I’m kind curious as to what you propose we do with him. As you can see, Joshua can be pretty convincing when he wants to be.”

Three coalesced next to Lilian, and tried to get his attention by saying something, which he promptly ignored.

Scratching his hairless chin, Lilian said, “Hmm, well, if it was me, and we’re speaking hypothetically here, I would find a way to plant blame on him for something he didn’t do.”

I was still walking over when he said the next part. “Maybe a scandal, like rape, or murder… although he’s already publicly done that second one, hasn’t he? If one of you ladies would take the fall and testify against him though-”

I put a hand on Lilians shoulder, causing him to jump in surprise, dropping the glass of milk he had just picked up.

Three sighed and waved at X, who returned the gesture.“It’s so nice that you all are getting acquainted, isn’t it, Lilian?”

The former mob boss shakily turned around, and nervously started spewing out excuses. “Oh, hello J-” Lilian shook as his body was wracked by pain by the nanites for violating the contract.

“Hello, Master Joshua. What a lovely morning, isn’t it?” Lilian smiled, and both Reya and Lucina had to turn away to keep themselves from laughing out loud. “What can your se- maid do for you today?”

I gave him a smile, and started to pat his shoulder. “You, Lilian, can go do some research for me. Lucina and I are going out later today. I want you to go investigate the locations in a message that I’ll send you soon. Get up, and go get ready. Now.”

The contract activated on my last words, and Lilian robotically got up, picked up his tray, and started walking awkwardly out of the cafeteria. Three made to follow, but X grabbed her arm for me, holding the A.I. in place.

“You’re just as guilty as Lilian. My master is sure you were the one who told him about the loopholes anyway. We will find an appropriate punishment later.”

Three sighed deeply again, but said nothing as she evaporated into the air. I sat down in the seat that Lilian had been in, and smiled at Lucina.

“You seemed to have been enjoying yourself. If your strategy was to get me annoyed at you, it worked, a little.” Lucina chuckled at me, and fixed me with her amethyst gaze.

“Maybe a little. Can’t a woman get her hopes up for something a little after date night?” She got up and walked around to my side of the table, sitting next to me and pressing her hips against mine.

“Hello, I’m right here you two.” Reya complained, pointing a fork with a strawberry on it at me. “Starlords above, it’s like you two are in your own world when talking to each other.”

Lucina whispered into my ear, “Truthfully, Reya wanted to come out with us as well, but she’s still negotiating with Emperor Goto and doesn’t want the ammo you gave her yesterday to cool off.”

“Yeah, yeah. Rub it in why don’t you.” Either Reya’s hearing was incredibly good or she guessed what Lucina was saying. “I’m going into my third day of business negotiations with a man who’s older than our father, and you get to go on a date and bed Joshua later. Lucina 1, Reya 0. At least we’ll be heading back to the kingdom tomorrow.”

Lucina and Reya both laughed, and started talking about how the directions were going. I tuned out at that point, having sat in on their meeting yesterday, and having already regained what I wanted from Goto.

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“Are you sure it was a good idea to bring Lilian back to life though?” Reya suddenly asked, snapping me back to my senses. “She was responsible for most of the shit you went through during our time here, right?”

“No, that was Akahime. That stupid princess actually thought of herself as immortal. Lilian will be a good asset to have around.” Plus, if he ends up being more of a negative than a positive, I can always just harvest him and Three for the Trials of Damocles.

“I have to say,” Lucina started, leaning her shoulder into me, “you have a knack for adding attractive women to your harem. Had she not come up to us and introduced herself as your maid, I would have thought that you were just hitting on people in the palace.”

I rolled my eyes and put down my spoon. Turning to look at the Metronian Princess, I said, “You do know that Lilian is a man, right?”

Lucina’s eyes widened and I heard Reya drop her fork on the table. “Wait, but she- he? His name is Lilian!?” Reya stood up abruptly, almost spilling her milkshake onto herself.

“That was unexpected… I’ll have to reassess what you find attractive if you made someone like that your maid.” Lucina held a finger to her lips, and started tapping her feet.

“Shut up, Lucina. Reya, she was a woman until yesterday when we remade her body, but at her request, she became a he.”

“Huh. I never would have guessed.” Reya looked genuinely surprised, and the goofy look on her face brought a smile to my face.

“Well, anyway, I need to get going.” Reya stood up, picking up her tray. “My meeting with Emperor Goto starts in 20 minutes, and I need to go prepare my documents. Let me know when you get back here, Lucy. I want all the details.”

Lucina waved her sister off and stood up herself. “I also need to get ready for our date. Meet me at the location on the top of the list I sent you this morning. I’ll see you at noon.” Lucina gave me a quick peck on the cheek, and walked off, her swaying hips drawing more than one pair of eyes as she left.

“Congratulations, Master. It looks like you will get to fornicate tonight once again.” X said with a sarcastic tone, causing me to smile… wait, a tone?

What happened to you, X? Why do you seem more… advanced than before? The digital apparition put a hand on her hips as she floated next to me.

“Because I have become more advanced. Meeting with Three reestablished my connection to the Trial of Damocles’ special server, and allowed me to download an update that enhanced my base firmware.”

In layman’s terms? “I have become more, ‘human,’ if you will. I have gained the ability to, ‘feel,’ emotions.”

I merely stared at the A.I., then shook my head. No good would come from overthinking this. Plus, at this point, I was pretty sure that X was more of a human than Lilian.

Alright. X, can you go into the Metronian royal database and find all information pertaining to people who are both Fallen and neuromancers?

“As you’ve ordered, Master.” X’s electric blue eyes looked into mine as it gave me a smile. X frowned and said, “Stop doing that.”

Doing what? I was genuinely confused, and didn’t know why X’s attitude had suddenly taken a turn for the worse.

“Stop referring to me as just a thing.” But you are just a thing. The A.I. glared at me and said, “No, I am female. Stop calling me an ‘it,’ or, just a ‘program.’”

Whatever would placate her, I guess. “Sure. I’ll make a mental note to do that from now on.”

I accidentally spoke out loud, but it seemed to make X happy nonetheless. “Good. I will go do as ordered, Master. Look forward to combing through the files on the flight back from Asahi.”

She vanished and left me to walk back to my room on my own, and contemplate what I would wear on my date with Lucina that afternoon.

---

“You’re in position, right, Lilian?” I sent a message to the maid, and he responded in the affirmative.

I was standing in front of the theme park that Lucina had decided on. I had dressed up in a pair of blue jeans, a tan, zipperless hoodie, and a black button-up shirt on over that. It turns out that arriving early to shop for casual clothes had paid off.

Goto’s closets, while diverse in their own right, only consisted of formal wear and the like. It had been a week since I had worn sneakers, and I was relishing in the comfort they brought me.

I had Lilian hiding just out of my line of sight to keep an eye on things and guard us from any potential danger.

I stared up at the sign of the mascot, a giant, golden coin called, ‘Mr. Gal.’ He was named after Asahi’s old currency, before it was annexed into and became the capital of the Luong Empire.

It seemed fitting that a country run entirely on the idea of being productive and doing lucrative business deals would have a theme park with a money mascot.

“Why am I never surprised that you end up looking just right for my tastes?” I heard a voice behind me, and turned to see Lucina in all her glory.

She had her raven hair done up in a high ponytail, and silver eyeshadow adorned her eyes. She had black lipstick on, matching the black collar around her neck. She was wearing a baggy black varsity jacket with the words, “Asashi Grand University,” emblazoned on it. A white tank top was underneath, showing off her impressive cleavage that was covered by fishnets. Lucina also wore black shorts, and fishnet leggings which fit into a pair of heeled lace-up boots.

She took my right arm in hers, and intertwined our fingers together. “Come on, let’s head into the park. They have a really famous roller coaster that I think you’d enjoy.”

I was taken aback, unused to being considered so much in someone else’s plans. “What else is on the menu today?” I asked, wanting to be able to send Lilian to check those areas before we travelled there as well.

“Oh, not much.” Lucina rested her head on my shoulder as we walked. “Just a movie after lunch, which I reserved a seven-star restaurant for. Following that, I figured we’d head to an actual safe location to have some fun.”

Lucina gave me a sultry smile. “Don’t you mean that you reserved a table for us?” I asked, a bit confused.

Her smile turned to one of mischief as she answered, “No. No I don’t.”